Star: Friends, romance is a beautiful genre for reminding us that we can create our own world. I’m currently reading Hairpin Curves by Elia Winters. In the novel, two old frenemies, Megan and Scarlett, create their own world by going on a duck of a long road trip just to get to a friend’s wedding. By taking this beak-tickling but scary risk, they begin to change their snippy relationship and discover it’s not really wrecked at all. The world they create together is in their own hands.
I’m about halfway through the book and I’m finding it super-ducking fun. It’s also making me think.
When the world around us oppresses our feathers, we can start to create our own world. Many scientists say that we humans can live in different dimensions of consciousness. In fact an ex of ours can pass us on the street (or pond) and not even recognize us because we’re no longer living in the same dimension (or pond).
Duck: I’ve heard there’s actually a world constructed entirely of Goldfish crackers. I think I’m going to move there. If there’s a pond.
Star: Yes! We can create worlds that are ours. It just involves intention.
Anais Nin, one of my favorite authors, was the ultimate creator in this respect. She deliberately lived a rare and extraordinary life simply through choosing to follow her heart. She wrote, “Had I not created my whole world, I would certainly have died in other people’s.”
Being queer, nonbinary, and intersex in the current political climate, I create my own world every single day. It’s how I continue joyfully. I treasure my privileges and try not to dwell on society’s attempts at erasure. Often, I think back to the stable, full-time job I had in my twenties that was basically killing me. I had been taught that I wouldn’t survive if I didn’t have a certain type of professional job, and I really believed it. But it got to the point where my health said, “Star, you’ve got to go.”
Duck: I was quacking SO LOUDLY that you needed to ditch that job. But sometimes humans are so ducking stubborn they get cheese in their ears.
Star: True! Usually Gouda. It really blocks the ear canal.
Duck: Canals are the best when it comes to wetting the beak-holes. So anyway Star, you left that job with no other job to go to. That was beak-to-flippers awesome!
Star: It didn’t feel like it. I was terrified. But within two weeks of leaving, thanks to a tiny ad in the local paper, I was teaching young trainee professional footballers (soccer players in U.S. terms) English Literature in a bar with sticky tables. It was one of the best jobs I could possibly have had. (Until you’ve put King Lear’s characters onto a football pitch, you don’t really know King Lear!)
Duck: High flipper! 🙌 (King Lear can’t be a duck because I’ve never heard of him.
Star: He’s not, duck-friend. Anyway, suddenly, I realized I could create a new world just by ditching an old one. And from there, I’ve never looked back.
Duck: Goldfish cracker, anyone?
Star: Don’t mind if I do.
Romancey Pants 